I guess what you are really trying to say is that it is too bad that women aren't capable of making video games so the only way one could have a female charecter is if they can convince a man to do it for them... Seems like it would be easier to just learn to code, but whatever floats your boat.

45 percent of gamers are female, so voting with your dollars seems pretty reasonable to me.

Excellent post Angela. Excellent.

I'm frequently torn up about enjoying pop culture vs supporting creators who don't care about me. But I think educated consumption is important. And your proposition is easy. We enjoy all the games, don't have time for them all anyway. May as well put the time into enjoying games that are making a difference and pro-human.

I hope everyone, of both genders, consider how to spend their dollars responsibly.

Hi Mr. Econoline, I'd like to refer you to my post called "More Women Making Videogames, Please."

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…

Thanks, babe!

Adults wasting their lives on interactive cartoons. At least skaters do something. I waste my free time having sex, which is a feminist action because it always includes 50-66% female participants.

The game in question, Rust, starts every character COMPLETELY NAKED by design, which makes the inclusion of female avatars somewhat loaded. It makes Rust an awkward rallying point for this important effort.

This article (erm, blog post? What's the correct term? Gaaah, out of date with the lingo) highlighted something that never really clicked with me before - the human element behind games. I mean, I understood that lots - lots and lots and LOTS - of work goes into even the "simplest" game, and that there were real people behind those work-hours, but the idea of those creators getting out there in a public, social-media way never occurred to me before. It makes me excited, and a little nervous, to go looking for the people who helped craft some of my favorite games. I hope I don't find anything too slimy.

Bradwerth can you explain to me why it is ok for a game to contain a fully naked male character but not a fully naked female character? Am I to understand that it's ok for a male to be nude, but it's somehow wrong or overly sexual for a female character?

Thadeus Cooper: just that a game with a playable nude female avatars would likely be criticized for being provocative in a way that it wouldn't by limiting to nude male avatars. Female avatars in Rust could trigger a backlash that would set back this effort. I'm saying we should focus on getting clothed female avatars in every other game before agitating for (nude) gender equality in Rust.

The "Sunset" Kickstarter is still active (ending Jul. 17th) and both has a female main character and one of the developers is female, if you're interested in shout-outs.

Rust is a 1st person game where every character (albeit male) looks exactly the same. There is no character creation, its not laziness but there is no reason to implement character customization like that. Its a fucking game not real life - video game creators should just start making gender neutral characters

While I agree with everything you said about having more female game characters, saying a development team is lazy for not including a female character displays lack of understanding for how games are developed. They can't just transpose everything to a female character model, it would require re-animating almost everything, with a new character model you may have to re-adjust hit/hurt boxes, record new voice overs, and change interactions and quest text. On top of all those changes you now have to pay testers to re-test every aspect of the game with a new model and make the appropriate fixes from the new bugs that arise. It actually can end up doubling the production time and cost of the game.

All that being said, the best option is to vote with your money. Buy games from companies who make strong female leads and supporting characters in their games and force other game companies to start spending money on games with them.

please make a blog dedicated to games i can feel good about playing!